Category: Uncategorized

By Rik Keller

Summary

Based on extensive analysis of the Nishi project I did using my long-term professional experience as an affordable housing and city planning consultant, I found that there is a lot of dishonesty in how the project is being marketed by its proponents as “affordable”. The Yes on J campaign website touts its “groundbreaking, privately-funded affordable housing program,” However, when the numbers are looked at more closely, it is just marketing lingo that is covering up for the developers proposing to charge substantially more by running the project with a bed-lease arrangement rather than a room-lease or unit-lease arrangement. Fundamentally, the way the project is structured provides a large profit margin for the developer for the provision of expensive, exclusive housing compared to existing Davis rental rates.

The bottom line is that the ‘market rate’ units–consisting of 90% of the units in the project–will be among the most expensive, if not THE most expensive rental units in town, and even the majority of the ‘affordable’ units will be more expensive than average current city rental rates.

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Dear Fellow Parents,

It has come to our attention that the district is planning to make cuts to the choir program for the incoming school year. The rationale given has been that next year’s enrollment numbers do not allow for two choirs at each Junior High School and the plan will be one choir per Junior High combined with 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students. Mr. Zinn’s 1.0 FTE is being reduced to a .6 position.

As we all can appreciate, differentiated teaching can be difficult.Teaching beginning choir students presents different challenges than that of more mature 9th graders, many of whom who will be preparing for auditioning for DHS choirs next Spring. Though next year’s choir class sizes could be smaller than other subject matter classes, it has been demonstrated both this year and in the past that the school district has supported and offered smaller class sizes for choir.

Courtesy of EAST BAY  COMMUNITY LAW CENTER via an attorney friend of mine.

"I have a felony conviction or juvenile adjudication on my record.  Can I still vote?    YES !

As long as you are at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen, out of prison and off felony parole.

Can I vote while I'm on probation?        YES !

You can vote even if your are currently on probation, regardless of whether your conviction is for a felony or misdemeanor, or your probation is supervised(felony or formal probation or banked) or unsupervised (court or misdemeanor probation).      

Can I vote even if I've been to prison in the past?     YES !
As long as you are out of prison and off felony parole now, you are eligible to vote.      

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Davisite Sarah Joan Fulton, better known as Sadie, was certified as a write-in candidate for Assembly District 4 by CA Secretary of State Padilla on May 25^th.  Fulton joins two other write-in candidates and current Assembly Member Cecelia Aguiar-Curry in the June 5^th open primary election.

Since Aguiar-Curry faces only write-in candidates in the June 5^th primary, whichever write-in candidate gets the most votes will appear on the November ballot with Aguiar-Curry.

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By Colin Walsh

Some excellent questions where posted about the Nishi project and I wanted to share the answers here (with permission of the questioner). 

Q> Why is nobody talking about how UC Davis has increased their student population without making sure that there is housing built for students, and how that contributes to the housing crisis in Davis?

A> You're exactly right. A few years ago the University launched the 2020 initiative that brought in 5,000 additional students to campus without planning for housing or other facilities. This has absolutely contributed to the Davis housing crunch. City leaders did nothing at the time to push the University to build more housing. Some even cheered that it would lower the vacancy rate, these same leaders now support the Nishi project. For example:

Swanson said she believes the addition of 5,000 new undergraduates and 300 new faculty will have a positive effect.

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Not long ago (end of April this year), the UC Davis Institute for Transportation Studies invited Dr. C.J. Gabbe from Santa Clara University's Department of Environmental Studies & Sciences to give a talk about the issues related to the health effects of near highway residential developments….. like NISHI.

Dr. Gabbe considered economics, public health, zoning, mitigation, transportation studies, policy making, environmental justice etc etc.  You might enjoy his talk which the UCD ITS has posted using this link:

 https://ucdcoe.mediasite.com/Mediasite/Play/2cc5b94eecb8457ea77e43c9f4a17eed1d

The reason that scientists are increasingly doing these kinds of studies is that there is some real concern that an absence of consideration of the health effects in all public policies is leading to unnecessary negative health impacts for the citizens/residents of California.  Hot topic!!

Check it out.

John

From The Flatlander Newspaper

What follows are some of the peculiar arguments being put forth to support Nishi 2.0.  Have any of these claims fooled you?  

1) UCD students are forced to rent in Woodland, Dixon and West Sacramento.

False.  Students are not “forced” to do anything.  They choose to live in other communities for all sorts of reasons:  a preference for a community other than Davis; lower cost, a desire to live with friends or family; proximity to employment, to name a few.  Building more housing in Davis does not change any of those factors, nor should it.

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